Hill 400

Hill 400 was a 1,315-feet-high hill that was fortified by Nazi Germany as a part of its Siegfried Line defenses in the autumn of 1944, located in the town of Bergstein on the German border with Belgium. The German 980th Grenadier Regiment of the 272nd Volksgrenadier Division defended the hill, and it came under attack from the US 2nd Ranger Battalion in December 1944 during the Battle of Huertgen Forest. The Rangers secured the small town of Bergstein from the Germans and prepared to assault the hill, as they had been coming under sporadic artillery fire from the German lines. On 7 December, the US Army Rangers assaulted Hill 400 in a head-on assault, suffering heavy casualties at the hands of the defenders of the German bunkers and trenches. The Rangers eventually succeeded in taking the hill's main bunker, but they had to hold Hill 400 against enemy counterattacks. The Americans faced artillery bombardment and armored assaults, and they held the hill at all costs, with most of the American troops being killed or wounded. The German assaults would be held off until the US Air Force bombed the German armored vehicles and forced the German forces to retreat, saving the defenders of the hill.